Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Are you the next Electricpig Reporter?
Sims 3 for Xbox, PS3, DS and Wii official
LG Optimus Android phone dated for the UK
BlackBerry 6 video: six secrets it reveals
Nokia N8: First secrets revealed
iPhone 4.0: Even Dilbert’s got one
Red Dead Redemption: drugs shocker gets an underage ban
Steve Jobs squashes Mac app store rumours
Sony discount blitz: trade in old tech for money off new kit
Google TV: Samsung may build one

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 01:08 PM PDT

We're on the look-out for the best new tech reporter the UK has to offer. Is that you? Then drop us a line, and show us what you've got!

We're looking for a sharp-eyed tech hound, eager to sniff out the best angles on the day's technology news, and wow our readers with must-read gadget stories.

You'll need to demonstrate a knowledge of the tech sector and enough insight to meet the demands of Electricpig's discerning readers, as well as an ability to give your stories a fresh and interesting twist.

Unlike some sites, this is a paying job, with a real wage and a fair few perks. You'll need to be based in the Greater London area of the UK, be eligible to work in Britain, and available to begin full time employment in the next month or so. If you'd like to apply, it's easy. If you want to impress us, that's a different matter…

Just drop an e-mail to editor@electricpig.co.uk, with a copy of your CV, a brief note on why you'd love to write for Electricpig and the following two tasks completed.

Task 1: Write a 500 word opinion piece on the recent next-generation iPhone leak

The format and headline can be of your own choosing, although you should stick to Electricpig style and tone.

There is no need to provide an image to accompany the piece, but please describe the image you would ideally use to illustrate your point.

Task 2: Identify and write a news story for Electricpig, with a fresh and interesting angle

This does not need to be an exclusive story, but you should bring readers a new and innovative take on it, making sure it is relevant, and differentiating the Electricpig treatment from all others.

Please limit yourself to 300 words, sticking to Electricpig style and tone. Also, please describe the image you would use to accompany the story, and where you would source it.

Good luck, have fun, and maybe you could be the next Electricpig Reporter!

Sims 3 for Xbox, PS3, DS and Wii official

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 09:00 AM PDT

The Sims 3 has just been confirmed for consoles, just as EA hinted back in February. The super selling god game is bound for Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii and DS, but they’re not all straight ports, with each version boasting unique features.

It’s hard to believe that The Sims 3 has only been on sale for PC and Mac (And iPhone), given the huge hype it garnered on launch, but come the Autumn (or “Fall” as EA puts it), that’s finally about to change. The Sims 3 will land on all three major home consoles as well as the Nintendo DS handheld.

While you can expect graphics and gameplay similar to the PC The Sims 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3, EA has revealed that both will offer the option to design and upload building and content for others to try out, LittleBigPlanet style.

Read our The Sims 3: World Adventure review now

The Nintendo Wii version of The Sims 3 (Which we suspect may sell rather well) meanwhile gets an exclusive beach town to have your minions bum around in, and a”Life Moments” multiplayer game – EA’s not fleshed out this mode yet but we’re intrigued.

Finally, the Nintendo DS version of The Sims 3 makes full use of the touchscreen, letting you draw your own buildings and decorate furniture and even faces with the stylus. If you’re anything like us when we’re left in charge of a family of Sims, that could lead to some rudely shaped people and places indeed.

EA has yet to set an exact date for the The Sims 3 on Xbox 360 and co, but we’ll be back as soon as it’s set in stone.

Out Autumn | £TBC | EA

LG Optimus Android phone dated for the UK

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 08:40 AM PDT

The LG Optimus touchscreen only Android phone that popped up on LG’s French site the other week has made its way across the Channel, despite the volcanic ash clogging the sky and grounding flights. LG UK has just made it official, and given it a launch date that’s just around the corner.

As expected, the LG Optimus (or LG GT540 to use its model number), sports a 3-inch 480×320 touchscreen, a three megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and the older Android 1.6. Unlike the tasty, turbo charged LU2300 phone, the LG Optimus is clearly a low end smartphone, similar to the LG GW620 InTouch Max phone already on sale, but minus the slide out QWERTY keyboard.

LG Optimus Android phone incoming!

Unfortunately, the LG Optimus shares the GW620’s finger unfriendly resistive touchscreen, so don’t expect to be blitzing out messages at speeds you can hit on an HTC Legend or Google Nexus One. Still, if that sounds like your cup of tea, the LG Optimus goes on sale from 1 May in the UK. We’re chasing down network availability now, and we’ll update as soon as any carriers break cover with pricing.

Out 1 May | £TBC | LG Optimus

BlackBerry 6 video: six secrets it reveals

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 08:00 AM PDT

BlackBerry 6, RIM’s big bet to catch up to iPhone and Android in the smartphone software stakes, has just been shown off in an official video. Set to a Black Eyes Peas soundtrack, it’s one cheesy affair, but in between the clips of all the young professional types busting a move, there’s some gold to be gleamed about just what to expect. We’ve gathered together six nuggets you may not spot about BlackBerry 6, so read on for the list and the video.

Podcast support is built in
It’s hardly a revolutionary new feature, but a Podcasts icon can be seen in the media folder in BlackBerry 6, alongside video, images, music and YouTube. That’s great news for BlackBerry addicts who currently have to pay for an app such as PodTrapper to get the same sort of iTunes and podcast experience as iPhone users.

Pinch to zoom
It’s not confirmed, but 54 seconds in you can see the gyrating suit swipe with two hands to zoom in on a photo. We’ve yet to try a zooming option for swooping in and out of touchscreen photos and websites that’s preferable to the pinch to zoom multitouch gesture pioneered by the iPhone (The Nokia N900’s one finger rotating zoom was just weird). BlackBerry 6 goes a step further by providing an icon showing you have much of the image is in view at one time.

YouTube music integration
In a move slightly similar to the Mediascape app on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, BlackBerry 6 will pull up related YouTube videos of artists you have stored on your phone for you. Skip to 0:23 in the BlackBerry 6 video and you can see the option spring up as someone searches for will.i.am (Shudder). It’s potentially a great way to find more songs by singers and groups you like.

BlackBerry 6 dated!

Universal search
BlackBerry OS already has a fairly comprehensive search option, but it’s slow, and doesn’t jump online beyond your messages to pull up the info you want. BlackBerry 6 though will let you type in a word or phrase, whittling down emails, apps and calendar events, all the while providing a browser icon to instantly Google for it too.

Tabbed browsing
Yes. We had to pinch ourselves when we saw this. The atrocious, single page web browser has been the bane of BlackBerry OS for years, but BlackBerry 6 finally lets you open multiple pages on the go on the upcoming, revamped WebKit browser. It appears to be triggered by the icon in the top right hand corner of the screen (Skip to 1:46 to see it), and drops down a row of page tiles – clearly BlackBerry 6 will allow for at least four pages open at once, which is already a 300 percent improvement on the current situation.

Social feeds
BlackBerry OS already boasts one of the best, most tightly integrated mobile Facebook apps around, but by and large, Twitter BlackBerry apps (Even RIM’s own) are poor, and battery gannets. BlackBerry 6 could do away with them with social feeds, showing you streams of your friends’ Facebook and Twitter updates all in one pane, with the option to filter between them. It’s not clear if other social networks can be added too, but we don’t see the point in a filter button if not. The BlackBerry 6 video also reveals that tapping a friends name in this view brings up a visual list of ways to message them, similar to the pop up contact bar in Android 2.0

Nokia N8: First secrets revealed

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 07:30 AM PDT

The Nokia N8 flew out of the leak machine and into officialdom today. We’ve already spied its lovely shell from every angle in our photo gallery, and seen it demoed on video, but what secrets has Nokia stashed underneath the N8’s skin? Read on, and we’ll spill the beans on the Nokia N8’s secrets.

Wi-Fi workhorse
Sure, the Nokia N8 has Wi-Fi inside, but did you know it’s actually N-standard Wi-Fi? That’s incredibly rare in a mobile phone. The Google Nexus One has N-standard Wi-Fi chips inside, but hasn’t yet had the software updates that’ll make them work at full pelt. So what’s the advantage for the Nokia N8? A Wi-Fi range of 250 meters outdoors, or around 70 where it has to pass through indoor walls, as well as speeds up to 160Mbps, that’s around seven times faster than previous generation Wi-Fi, and should make streaming photos, videos and music to the N8 a breeze.

Biggest ever camera
We’re not talking megapixels here, although the Nokia N8’s 12 megapixel count is mighty impressive. No, we’re concentrating on the physical size of the Nokia N8’s sensor. According to the chaps at Nokia Conversations, the Nokia N8 “features a substantially larger sensor than any ever used in any other Nokia device – even bigger than many found in dedicated cameras,” and where there’s a larger sensor, there’s more room for pixels to receive light without also adding noise to the images it produces.

Speedy shutter
Nokia says the latency between jabbing the shutter button of the Nokia N8 and seeing a snap is about 150 milliseconds. That's “as fast as many dedicated cameras and actually faster than some,” meaning the N8 should finally mean you stop carrying both a camera and a phone, at least for point and shoot pics.

Nokia N8: First video sighted

Surround sound inside
The Nokia N8 has Dolby Digital Plus technology inside, as well as a HDMI output. Load it up with HD movies, and connect it to your TV. If you’ve got a surround sound setup at home, the N8 will blast out soundtracks with different channels for each speaker. Load it up with clips in the right format, and you really are looking at a portable home theatre system.

Flash as standard
Apple might still be bickering with Adobe over Flash support on the iPhone and iPad, but Nokia is forging ahead, adding Flash support to the Nokia N8, so web pages load in full, no matter what ads, video or games are embedded in them. Thanks to its N-standard Wi-Fi, the Nokia N8 should be pretty speedy at loading hefty Flash files too.

TV pre-loaded
Nokia’s new Web TV app means you won’t have to visit the Ovi Store, visit streaming sites or negotiate any barriers when watching TV on the move. It’ll come pre-loaded with feeds from CNN, National Geographic and E! as well as local channels too. There’s no word on BBC iPlayer support within Nokia’s Web TV app, but we’re hoping to see that nailed down soon.

Nokia N8: All the official photos

New music player
The Nokia N8 has an all-new music player. From our first glimpses, it looks pretty slick, boasting a new coverflow-style interface, and since the Nokia N8 has up to 48GB of storage, assuming you slip in a microSD card, it should be set to take on Apple’s next generation iPhone, even before it launches.

Stonking battery life
The Nokia N8 doesn’t just pack in capacity and a new music player, Nokia says it’ll keep pumping out tunes for a full 50 hours. That’s more than any Nokia we’ve seen before, and even in standby mode it’ll keep kicking for over 16 days between charges.

It will use a stylus
Nokia has fitted the N8 with a capacitive touchscreen, which usually only works with finger tips. However, it also states that a capacitive stylus can be used, and boasts handwriting recognition for entry of Chinese characters. It remains to be seen whether stylus fans (and yes, there are some out there) will be swayed, especially as the Nokia N8 doesn’t come with a screen-prodder of its own, or even space to stash one.

Qt support built-in
The Nokia N8 is the first device to support Nokia’s new Qt development platform. It means coders will love the device, since they’ll be able to build their apps in one device and instantly know there aren’t any compatibility problems with other Nokia phones. It’s already released an SDK for code fans to tinker with, and now they’ve got a device to try their apps out on too.

Out Q3 | €370 (£320) | Nokia

iPhone 4.0: Even Dilbert’s got one

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT

The iPhone 4.0 leak saga continues to entertain the web. Not only have cops raided the home of the Gizmodo blogger responsible for publicising Cupertino’s unfortunate loss, but now cartoonist Scott Adams has waded in, using the iPhone leak as the springboard to demonstrate his speedy scribbling.

Adams has penned a special Dilbert cartoon, illustrating the loss of the iPhone 4.0 prototype with the aid of Dilbert’s co-worker Wally.

Wally is seen nabbing the iPhone 4.0 from Dilbert, then heading to a German-themed bar, just like Apple engineer Gray Powell, responsible for losing Steve Jobs’ newest baby earlier this month.

It’s just the latest in a long line of satirical takes on the iPhone 4.0 leak, and while Apple’s keeping schtum about its new product, it’s clear it’s set to remain in the public conscious for at least another few weeks, maybe even longer now Apple’s gadget is at the heart of a police investigation.

See the whole Dilbert strip, including Wally’s assessment of the iPhone 4.0 (at least, up until his fourth stein) at Scott Adams’ site.

TBC | £TBC | Apple, Scott Adams

Red Dead Redemption: drugs shocker gets an underage ban

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

Red Dead Redemption might be galloping toward release, but if you're under 17 be prepared for disappointment: the drug taking antics of its characters have warranted it an ESRB rating of "Mature", as well as giving us the skinny on what to expect.

According to the ESRB, Red Dead Redemption features players who "roam Wild West environments and perform various missions for criminal figures and law enforcement: destroying bridges, helping individuals in distress, delivering packages of drugs (e.g., opium), capturing outlaws, and eliminating rival figures.”

The ratings body goes on to spill Red Dead Redemption's beans by stating: “Players have the ability to shoot pedestrians in the game; however, a ‘Wanted Level’-penalty system discourages these acts by triggering a law enforcement response. The game contains a scene in which two characters have sex on a table; there is a brief instance of female nudity.”

Red Dead Redemption pre-order goodies spotted

Stop sniggering at the back, this is serious business. Red Dead Redemption is one of the hottest games of the year, and in typical style developers Rockstar aren't shying away from the controversy.

“One sequence depicts a man injecting himself with a syringe filled with cocaine," blabs the ESRB, lifting the lid on a plotline sure to have middle England in uproar. We're yet to spy a BBFC rating for the game in the UK, but from initial reports it seems it'll be around the 18 mark. Great for grown-up gamers with a sensible head on their shoulders, but bad news for any underage thumb-twiddlers keen to get their Red Dead Redemption on when the game is released on

Out 21 May | £TBC | Rockstar (via ESRB)

Steve Jobs squashes Mac app store rumours

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 06:00 AM PDT

Worried there'll be a Mac app store just like the iPhone and iPad? Concerned Apple will lock down apps on the desktop, just like it has for portables? You needn't be. Mac developers have had their fears allayed by Steve Jobs in yet another terse e-mail to a fan.

Fernando Valente, a developer for Chairo Software, e-mailed the Apple head honcho asking if the rumours of a Mac app store were true.

In typically brief fashion, Jobs reportedly replied with a single word: "Nope".

So there you have it, all those working themselves up into a tizzy over app support on the Mac can sleep soundly for another night: For now at least, it seems Jobs and Co have no plans to enforce a vetting process, App lockdown, or revenue share for developers on the Mac. Phew!

TBC | £TBC | Apple (via TUAW)

Sony discount blitz: trade in old tech for money off new kit

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 05:30 AM PDT

Sony wants your old gadgets. No, seriously, that old digital camera in the cupboard? Sony wants it. In return, the company's offering you money off its latest kit. Sony discounts ahoy! Read on, and we'll break them down in detail.

Sony's trade in campaign will run from tomorrow until July 11th, following a similar promotion last year. This time around though, it's even better. Where last year Sony offered up to £150 off its newest Bravia TVs in exchange for your old set, this year it's offering Sony discounts across almost all product ranges.

There's up to £150 off Bravia TVs again, as well as up to £50 off Blu-ray players and DVD recorders. £30 can be knocked off the price of a Sony Cybershot camera too, and if you're in the market for a Sony Handycam video camera, you can expect up to £60 in discounts.

Even the smallest discount, knocking £25 off Walkman products, is worth having in exchange for a mouldy old bit of tech cluttering your cupboards, and for more expensive items Sony’s offering bigger discounts for better-spec kit. Check out the discounts on offer in full below.

The campaign kicks off tomorrow at sony.co.uk/tradein where you'll be able to find stockists taking part, although Curry's, Comet, John Lewis and Tesco Extra have signed up alongside independent retails and Sony Centres, so you shouldn't have too much trouble tracking down a Sony discount near you.

Blu-ray disc players and DVD recorders: £30 – £50 off
BRAVIA Essentials television range: £50 – £150 off
BRAVIA Network television range: £50 – £150 off
BRAVIA Cinematic television range: £100 – £150 off
Cybershot cameras: £15 – £30 off
Handycams: £60 off
Headphones: £5 to £30 off
Home Theatre: £30 – £50 off
Reader Pocket Edition: £20 off
Walkman: £15 – £25 off

For more gadget discounts every month, make sure you check out our own Electricpig Offers page.

From April 29 | £TBC | Sony

Google TV: Samsung may build one

Posted: 27 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Google TV plans for Android and Chrome OS powered TVs and set top boxes already include Sony and Intel. Now it seems Samsung could go for Google TV too. A source at the Korean tech giant has hinted that it is considering jumping on the Google TV bandwagon. Could we be set to see a gaggle of Google TV sets on the way?

While the exact details of the Google TV scheme remain a mystery, an unnamed Samsung executive told the Korea Herald: "We are considering developing Google TVs. We are examining the business feasibility of Google TVs."

It's not surprising that Samsung would be interested in getting in on the Google TV plans with its major rival Sony set to unveil its Google TV at the end of 2010.

Samsung unveiled an app store for mobile and TV, Samsung Apps, at CES 2010 and could use its own Bada mobile OS on set top boxes and TVs. Building a Google TV would compete with that.

Google is rumoured to be unveiling Google TV software this summer and Samsung says it'll wait until the plan goes public before deciding on its next move. Media software maker Boxee has already heralded the Google TV plans as “a great opportunity”.

Due TBC | £TBC | Samsung (via Korea Herald)

Made for Life

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

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